Kristin Möller dominates on the run and leaves her competition in the dust.

by Angela Pribernig

Cloudy skies, cool temperatures, and almost no wind made for perfect conditions as the 2,200 athletes entered the fifth edition of IRONMAN Kalmar, Sweden. Today marked the first time the race was exclusively pro women and age groupers. A small but strong pro field started the race at 6:45 a.m. at the harbor of Kalmar while the age groupers followed at 7 a.m in a rolling start.

Lucie Zelenkova (RSA) took over the lead in the water from the beginning and after a strong swim she exited the Baltic Sea in a time of 54:03. She was first out onto the bike and constantly increased her lead over the 42.2km course. Zelenkova was chased by the young Caroline Lehrieder (GER) and Kristin Möller (GER) but she kept pushing hard and didn't give up the lead until 150km into the bike when Lehrieder overtook her. The German reached T2 first with a 05:01:25 bike split. Zelenkova came in 06:32 after Lehrieder. Möller was 16:16 back from the leader.

On the marathon, Lehrieder kept her top position until 22km. Möller showed her running strength from the very beginning and soon was the fastest runner on the day. She minimized her gap and overtook Lehrieder shortly after the half marathon split. Lehrieder tried to keep up, but Zelenkova came from behind and took second place at 34km. Möller finished an incredible race in 09:14:39. Lucie Zelenkova grabbed second place in 09:21:31, followed by Caroline Lehrieder rounding out the podium in 09:24:30.